8 Beauty Hacks to Look Like a Real Person in the Morning

You wake up, flawless. Post up, flawless. If only Beyoncé lyrics applied to real life. A more fitting lyric might be You wake up, flawless…ly tired and hungover and slightly resembling a zombie. In situations like these (aka every morning, ever), we like to rely on a few choice beauty hacks to help us resemble a respectable human being (which we promise we are—you just wouldn’t know it by the size of our under-eye bags).

From ice cubes to baking, keep scrolling for eight hacks that’ll turn you from zero to Queen Bey (well, almost).

Gabrielle Union swears by this trick, as does Kate Moss. In other words, you need this in your arsenal stat. On mornings when you wake up resembling a cute yet tired panda, go straight to the kitchen and grab some ice. Wrap it in a paper towel, wait for the moisture to saturate, then glide it over your face to instantly tighten your pores and wake up your complexion. Or, you can do as Moss does and fill your sink with ice water and cucumber, then simply submerge your face in it. Up to you. (Also, if you want to freeze some green tea and rub those ice cubes on your face for the brightening antioxidant benefits, no one will accuse you of being an overachiever.)

Next step—go back to the kitchen and grab the two spoons you always keep in the freezer, because you’re a smart person and plan ahead. Place them over your eyes, and sigh with us: aaah. The cold spoons will help de-puff your swollen eyes in just a few seconds. You’re welcome.

Makeup artist Lauren Andersen keyed us into this pro trick. Before starting your makeup routine, apply a generous layer of your favorite lip balm (our current favorite is Farmacy’s Lip Bloom, $17). Then, go ahead with your morning makeup routine, and go back to apply color on your lips at the very end. This technique allows the lip balm ample time to sink into your lips and gets rid of any dryness or flakiness. Genius!

So the frozen spoons helped with the puffiness, but there’s still the giant-dark-circle thing. Not to fear—do as makeup artists do and enlist your eye cream and favorite tinted moisturizer. First, dab an eye cream like Origins Planscription Anti-Aging Power Eye Cream ($45) around your orbital bone. Then, while the eye cream is still dewy, apply a light wash of your favorite foundation or tinted moisturizer around your eye, over the lid, and along the lash line with a small flat brush. Then, just apply the rest of your face makeup and blend.

We’re all about a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed look, especially when we’re feeling quite the opposite. Enter baking, a technique that allows your foundation and powder to melt into your skin for a luminous glow. We like to apply this step to our under-eyes (aka the part of our face that suffers the most when sleep is lacking). After the above step, tap a translucent powder, like Laura Mercier’s Secret Brightening Powder ($25), below your cheekbones, wait five minutes (you can carry out the rest of our steps below), then gently brush off any excess. The final effect looks natural, and your dark circles a thing of the (very recent) past.

It’s the oldest trick in the book and every beauty editor’s go-to—just mix your favorite luminizer with your foundation for a (faux) post–St. Barth’s glow. We think a ratio of one part luminizer and two parts face makeup works beautifully, but feel free to adjust depending on how glowy you want to look. If you’re not in the mood to play mixologist, just dab some luminizer along your cheekbones and high points of your face before applying foundation for a barely there strobing effect.

And finally, it’s time to add some color—a pallid complexion is a dead giveaway of lack of sleep. We recommend choosing a cream formula, like Kjaer Weis’s Cream Blush ($56) in Happy, and dabbing it into the apples of your cheeks. Feel free to use your fingers—the heat from them will warm up the blush and make the finish dewier and more natural. Then, to finish it off, lightly tap the color into your now-hydrated lips, too. Voilà! No one will ever be able to tell you broke your vodka-shot record last night.